The Boston Bruins’ season ended Friday in a second-round, Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.
The Boston Bruins’ season ended Friday in a second-round, Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.
A season’s end is when the front office’s work begins.
Following the Boston Bruins’ second-round exit to the Florida Panthers last week, CEO Charlie Jacobs, president Cam Neely, general manager Don Sweeney and coach Jim Montgomery addressed the media Wednesday at TD Garden.
Three takeaways from the closing press conference, below:
Bruins On The Hunt For Scoring
While Boston was able to outscore a majority of its opponents in the regular season and finished in second place in the Atlantic Division – just one point behind the first-place Panthers – its inability to find the back of the net and extend leads in the playoffs ended its run early.
win. After winning Game 1 against Florida 5-1, the Bruins proceeded to post a cumulative eight goals through the next five games. Boston scored just one power-play goal through the series’ six games. No matter the stature of your goaltending or structure of your defense, that’s simply not enough offense to win.
“It reared its head at that most inopportune time that we weren't able to finish in quality chances,” Sweeney said of the team’s lack of scoring. “But we’re going to be aggressive to be able to complement what we currently have in some areas.”
The last three games against the Panthers were decided by one goal, including a 3-2 loss in Game 4 on home ice. A win would’ve tied the series 2-2. Instead, the Bruins fell into a 3-1 hole. In Game 4, David Pastrnak and Brandon Carlo both scored in the first period to give the B’s a 2-0 lead. However, the group was unable to build on the advantage and allowed three unanswered tallies from Florida.
What’s more, the Bruins didn’t get enough contributions from the players they were expecting to have better postseason numbers than they ultimately did. Namely, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha each had one goal through 13 playoff games. Sweeney, and the rest of the Bruins brass, see depth in goal scoring as a priority for the 2024-25 campaign.
“We need to fix and address that,” Sweeney said. “Whether that's player personnel, systematically, these guys work hard every day to try and find nuances that may shift that. The margins are small. They just are.”
Future Of The Goaltender Tandem
Jeremy Swayman proved he is ready for a full-time starting position this playoffs. The goaltender was the Bruins’ best player in all 12 of his postseason starts, logging a 2.15 goals against average and .933 save percentage. Swayman gave the Bruins – even if undeservingly so – a chance to win each night.
Swayman is now headed into a summer of free agency. The 25-year-old signed a one-year, $3.475 contract with the Bruins in August after an arbitration hearing, and the team will now do everything in its power to lock him down for the future.
“We clearly engaged in conversation during the regular season to define the longer term extension, we haven't gotten there yet,” Sweeney said of Swayman’s contract. “It’s a priority now and it will continue to be a priority until we get that across the finish line. He’s a big part of our current team and our record in the playoffs and our future.”
With Swayman ready to enter this next stage of his career – and collect a big paycheck to prove it – there are question marks around Linus Ullmark’s longevity in the Black and Gold. The goalie tandem of Ullmark and Swayman has been a trademark to the team’s success, but it doesn’t make sense to have over $10 million invested in your goaltenders when there’s need for upgrades in other positions, not to mention if one is just going to sit on the bench all season long.
Ullmark was a crucial piece to Swayman’s development, but there logistically does not seem to be space for both of them.
“If we can make the math work, we're going to have the best tandem,” Sweeney said. “Right now we're very happy to sign Linus [Ullmark], and in a perfect world, we would keep the tandem because I think it's damn good. But we're going to explore opportunities. My phone's going to ring, I'm going to make calls. That's just what the job requires.”
Boston Finding Strength In Its Youth
No one’s happy when a season ends. But looking at the pieces the Bruins lost last offseason, the roster they worked with this season and the unlikely heroes that stepped up along the way, fans have cause for positivity.
Beyond signings like Morgan Geekie, Danton Heinen and James van Riemsdyk working in Boston’s favor this year, it was the young players’ accelerated evolution that made the difference in the latter half of the season. Mason Lohrei and Johnny Beecher are two of those players that stood out to Neely.
“I think we saw some areas of growth from players that we didn't expect to this year, which is encouraging for us,” Neely said. “I don't think we expected Mason Lohrei to step in and play as many games as he did. Same with Johnny Beecher, came in and stole a job at camp. We weren’t expecting him to take a job at camp so that was a big surprise for us.”
Lohrei and Beecher both bounced between AHL Providence and Boston in their rookie showings before earning sturdy lineup slottings in the postseason.
Through 11 games, Lohrei posted four points (one goal, three assists) while skating on the first defensive pair with Charlie McAvoy. The 23-year-old’s first career playoff goal came in Game 1 of the second round. It was a snipe from a low angle that gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead in the middle frame.
Beecher potted Boston’s first postseason goal 2:26 into the first period of Game 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. The 23-year-old forward was on the fourth line with Pat Maroon and both Jesper Boqvist and Jakub Lauko. He was poised at the face-off dot and added an edge with his size and physicality.
“What excites me about the potential of next year is the growth,” Montgomery said. “The many players that establish themselves as core pieces and or becoming Bruins, and the potential growth that they have within their roles and their individual growth, to help the Bruins be better, and the opportunity ahead of us.”
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